Trump’s Surrogates Call Him ‘Genius’ For Getting Chumps To Pay His Taxes

If Donald Trump shot a random unarmed tourist on Fifth Avenue, I believe Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani would go on television praising his bullseye aim and explaining that “they needed killing.”

When the New York Times got a hold of some of Trump’s tax records from 1995 (which were not illegally obtained), they were able to build a fairly good case that Trump’s $916 million loss could have amounted to nearly two decades of tax-free income.

“There’s no one who’s shown more genius in their way to maneuver around the tax code,” Christie said on Fox News Sunday, reports Politico.

Giuliani:

On CNN’s State of the Union, Giuliani agreed with him: “The headline should have been, ‘Donald Trump takes advantage of legal provisions in tax code.”

“This is a perfectly legal application of the tax code,” Giuliani told This Weekon ABC. “And he would’ve been fool not to take advantage of it. Not only that, he would’ve probably breached his fiduciary duty to his investors, to his business.”

Let’s look at that statement. Trump took an enormous loss in real estate holdings from his casino businesses in Atlantic City, which he then covered–after converting the debt he personally guaranteed to his company–by going public.

After narrowly escaping financial ruin in the early 1990s by delaying payments on his debts, Mr. Trump avoided a second potential crisis by taking his casinos public and shifting the risk to stockholders.

And he never was able to draw in enough gamblers to support all of the borrowing. During a decade when other casinos here thrived, Mr. Trump’s lagged, posting huge losses year after year. Stock and bondholders lost more than $1.5 billion.

All the while, Mr. Trump received copious amounts for himself, with the help of a compliant board. In one instance, The Times found, Mr. Trump pulled more than $1 million from his failing public company, describing the transaction in securities filings in ways that may have been illegal, according to legal experts.

Here’s what happened to those investors. They were also able to take a much smaller tax deduction when they sold at a loss, while Trump drew a very nice salary and they paid his taxes.

Yessiree. Trump is a genius all right. A genius in maneuvering around people’s good sense and taking advantage of chumps.

About the author

Steve Berman

The old Steve cared about money, prestige, and power. Then Christ found me. All at once things changed. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I spent 30 years in business. Now I write and edit. But mostly I love. I have a wife and 2 kids and a dog and we live in a little house in central Georgia.